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Yes but most people don't like it.
It would be better if I got an pixel artist.
I am content with the art style, I was mainly looking for level designers.
In fact I was more likely to get a level designer than an artist
the reason I chose DOS is I wanted to bring it back.
I would probably just ask for help, that is easier.
Are there any forums besides this one that are all things Build?
I'm just looking for level designers.
Why is that when I do get somebody to work for Shaw's Nightmare, they stop responding at some point?
He claimed to be working on the maps
Though almost all of them had little to none portfolio and I accept them out of desperation.
I showed him how to work with the level designer so there is no excuse for his behavior.
I posted a help topic in the 3D Realms forums. If it fails to garner any help, I'm quitting this project.

ok, he sort of asked for help somewhere else, then threatened us all with quitting his project...

It isn't enough to just question authority anymore.
You also have to question those who are questioning authority.

Though almost all of them had little to none portfolio and I accept them out of desperation.

That is probably the problem. You need to convince, somehow, more skilled and more motivated artists to join your project. Have you tried to ask some of the mappers here personally? You can't expect people to just read this thread and volunteer themselves. Someone may have some free time, or at least a piece of work already done that they could contribute to you.

m96, on 20 December 2015 - 07:15 AM, said:

I tried to tell him he would be pushed out if he doesn't show the maps but I think he just ignored it.

That is generally a very ineffective way to motivate people. If the guy does nothing, it doesn't matter if he's "officially" off the project or not. Apparently the people you have contacted did not feel they gained something from working with you, so they would lose nothing if they quit.

I think what you need to do is to work on the presentation strategy for your game. This kind of thing does not happen itself - you can't motivate people to play, enjoy and contribute to your game by simply telling them that it exists. I would suggest that you very carefully read and analyse the feedback you got - here, at the Doomworld forums, at RGB Classic Games, the review I mentioned earlier etc. Of course I don't mean the comments that simply state that the art quality/gameplay/etc. is bad. There has been a lot of constructive criticism, and some of the flaws people have pointed out can be fixed without external help, like the inescapable pit in E1L1.

Once you have a clear idea of what the players perceive as flaws or weaknesses in your game, you need to think about its strengths. Unfortunately, there's only a relatively small segment of the gaming audience that appreciates your game being a DOS title - everyone else will regard the need to set up DOSBox, configure the game etc. as an unnecessary complication. Some cannot be bothered to set up DOS emulation at all, meaning that they will not play your game simply because of your choice of platform. So perhaps you should put a greater emphasis on the Windows port, and work with it as the primary version.

Further on, you need a very clear concept of your game's "unique playing proposition" yourself, so that whenever anyone asks you, what's so special about Shaw's Nightmare, you have a reasonable answer readily at hand. Without this, it will be very hard to attract any kind of interest to your game. If you don't have one, invent one.

Let's ask ourselves for a moment, what is Shaw's Nightmare?

It's a retro game

It's free

It's a Doom clone

It runs on the Build engine

It's moddable and comes with a level editor

It takes place in the world of nightmares

I can't come up with anything else at the moment, but with the right wording this already can serve as the basis for a consistent presentation of your game.

BTW, there's another thing. You seem to take the entire project overly seriously. Perhaps it could be useful to add a bit of self-irony to the presentation, like in this trailer of a retro game.

I'm telling you all this because I have a belief that your project does have potential for considerable improvement. You just need to find the right track for its development. Don't be afraid of setting higher goals. Admitting mistakes and drawbacks is a good thing, but saying stuff like

Why is that when I do get somebody to work for Shaw's Nightmare, they stop responding at some point?

m96, on 20 December 2015 - 07:15 AM, said:

Though almost all of them had little to none portfolio and I accept them out of desperation.

is pretty much a defeatist attitude.

tl;dr I think you need to be more active in promoting your game and maintaining communication with potential contributors. Many people have reacted positively to the project and offered constructive feedback. Use it to make Shaw's Nightmare more accessible to a wider audience, outline the areas you require help with, and specifically target the people who have the skills to assist you. Don't wait for someone to volunteer first.

Oh, and you also need to give those whom you ask for help a very clear idea of how and in what way their contribution will improve the project. If you have convinced yourself that the game has a great potential and is going to eventually become popular and fun to play for a wide audience, you will be able to convince others of that too, and thus motivate them. With this in mind, I believe that it is perfectly okay to tell people that you want to get better graphics, better levels or improved gameplay, especially if you describe in detail what you want and how you want it done.

Many people have suggested that you switch to a more modern engine (either based on the Build engine or id Tech 1) to increase the appeal of the game and possibly the chances to recruit mappers/artists etc. from the respective communities. It seems to me that this could actually be a venue worth exploring. How long do you think it might take for you to port the game to let's say EDuke32? After all, if it doesn't work out you can always revert back to the previous version built on your own engine.

How long do you think it might take for you to port the game to let's say EDuke32? After all, if it doesn't work out you can always revert back to the previous version built on your own engine.

Probably a lot longer programming-wise. Shaw's Nightmare took roughly 5 months to make (or 9 months if you count the fact I have not designed maps for the original game before December 2013). To my mind it is easier to make an entirely new engine than to changes to an existing one. The reason why I targeted DOS was that I loved DOS and I wanted to have a DOS game for myself. I'd rather port the existing engine to modern operating systems rather than struggle to modify Eduke32 (Which I've already done). I really don't need the advanced features. Keep in mind the goal was to develop a Doom-like game, and I more or less done that.

I never really wanted the game to be on the Build Engine. I wanted to design the game engine but I lacked the skills so I quit. When I found out about the Build engine I revived the project in 2008 and wanted more features to be more like Duke Nukem 3D or Shadow Warrior. But Nuno quit and I reverted back to the old 2007 design. I chose the (classic) Build engine because it was suited to my needs.

It's not about the advanced features. It's about increasing the chances of skilled mappers contributing to your project. it is my understanding that the Duke mappers here would be more willing to do something for Shaw's Nightmare if it were a little more accessible to them engine-wise.

If you can do pixel art, I could replace some sprites in the intro (will discuss later). Also I need to replace the sprites for Zombie Gripper, because I feel it is too similar to another enemy. I could also could use more textures.

I was looking through eXtreme Tracker for my website and I found some very interesting visitors who had very interesting referrals for example, two came from the archive of the website. What were those people looking for in there anyway?

I have release an alpha version of Shaw's Nightmare. You can download it here.

Would be awesome if the coding pros here took a look at it, I would like to know their opinion

m96, on 22 January 2017 - 08:29 PM, said:

Shaw's Nightmare v1.9 and Shaw's Nightmare II v1.2 are available here and here.

I checked v1.9 and I'm unable to run it in DOSBox. With 16 or 32 MiB RAM, the game tells me at startup that it only detects 2 MiB, then crashes. If RAM is set to 8 MiB or less, the game doesn't even start but reports a DOS4/GW error: not enough memory.

I'm sure previous versions did not act like that.

[Edit] I tried replacing DOS4GW.EXE with DOS32A.EXE, now it reports 3 MiB of memory available (with DOSBox configured to use 16) and crashes nonetheless.

I checked v1.9 and I'm unable to run it in DOSBox. With 16 or 32 MiB RAM, the game tells me at startup that it only detects 2 MiB, then crashes. If RAM is set to 8 MiB or less, the game doesn't even start but reports a DOS4/GW error: not enough memory.

I'm sure previous versions did not act like that.

[Edit] I tried replacing DOS4GW.EXE with DOS32A.EXE, now it reports 3 MiB of memory available (with DOSBox configured to use 16) and crashes nonetheless.